The Josh Innes Show - Thank God For CJ Stroud

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

I was driving around Houston listening to local sports talk dweebs explain that the Texans are lucky to have CJ Stroud. No shit Sherlock. The Texans are dealing with so many issues, yet keep finding ways to win thanks to the big plays made by #7. I do think it's fair to ask how that game would have been different if Joe Flacco would have played. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Ah! Woo! Okay. All right. When a core's life is cold enough, the mountains on the can turn blue. So the next time you want a cold lager, cold filter, cold package, Coors Light, just wait until those glorious mountains on the can turn blue. It's easy to say that fast when you're freezing cold.

Howdy, Jamokes. All right. So we went to the Texans game. We talked about that. Texans are now 6-2. They're going to win the AFC South. Despite all the people leaving the game early that didn't see it, the Texans did win, and the Texans currently sit at 6-2, and that was kind of a de facto AFC South championship game. I don't see the Colts, especially with their dreadful quarterback play,

making money moves on the Texans anytime soon. So I think the Texans are going to win that division. I thought they were before that game. I certainly do now. I spent Monday driving around listening to sports radio in Houston, which, strangely enough, is as mid as it's ever been. And one of the main talking points I heard from people is, they won won but they

got a lot of issues and that's true um the name of the game is winning well you know if we didn't have CJ Stroud I don't think we're winning well you do have fucking CJ Stroud you know like I am a believer that you can't ignore you know in victory what you wouldn't in defeat or whatever the saying is I believe that I'm you. The Texans are extremely flawed. Their offensive line is terrible. Their back end is not playing particularly well. And now who knows what's going to happen with Stephon Diggs. So you're without your two, arguably, your two best playmakers at that position.

I don't think arguably they are your two best playmakers at that position. I would imagine they're the most targeted guys on the team as well. So you're missing some key components. like that's the thing that I found interesting and I'm not going to do a full breakdown of play by play of this game or anything like that but one of the things I found interesting is this mindset that well you know if you didn't have CJ Stroud then I mean where would we be well that's why you get the elite quarterbacks that's why you've wanted to have this kind of player for a long time you kind of had that with Deshaun before Deshaun became whatever the fuck Deshaun is now but you felt like you always had a shot

with Deshaun to a degree you kind of felt like you always had a shot with Schaub but it was a little different like shab would get you down 17 points and then they put on a fierce rally in the second half and either come back and win on the last play of the game or lose on the last play of the game it felt like but he was never one of those guys where you were like hey we're never out of it with with shab deshawn kinda but stroud is like that like str Stroud is him. He is special. He's a talented dude. And that's why you have him. Like I guarantee you there are teams across the league over many years who said, God,

we probably would have lost if we didn't have this guy. I mean, look at some of the rosters the Patriots have had. Do you think they'd sit back and go, man, we would have been, we're lucky we had Tom Brady. Well, you have Tom Brady. That changes things. I'm a Saints fan. Drew Brees made a lot of mid receivers look pretty good and pulled a rabbit out of his hat often. You look at it now,

we don't have Drew Brees anymore. We have Derek Carr and Spencer Rattler. Guess what? We lose a lot of games. If you had Drew Brees, you had a shot to win a lot of games. There were three years, 16, I guess it would have been 14 15 16 that the saints were seven and nine in three straight years and then each year basically had the worst defense in the league was rob ryan was the defensive coordinator the only reason they were seven and nine is because they had drew breeze they didn't have drew breeze they were three and 13 every year like they weren't good so like the argument that well thank god i mean look if we didn't have we're lucky that we have cj stroud yeah there's i there's 20 other teams in the league that would give their left nut if not more go down a list there's only a handful of teams right now i would argue that would say

oh i would i'd take our guy over cj stroud one of them is kansas city one of them is Baltimore. Go down the list. Find the teams. There's a handful of them. And that seems like pretty good quarterbacks, but like Geno Smith is in Seattle. He's done fairly well for them, even though they're kind of coming back down to earth. But Geno Smith, if you went up to Seattle and said, do you want CJ Stroud or Geno Smith? They'd say, oh, please, please. I'll have a CJ Stroud, please. There aren't that many teams out there in the league right now. This isn't 10 years ago, 15 years ago, where there were like 10, 12, 13, really elite quarterbacks in the league.

We're in an era where the quarterbacks are getting the most numbers and the most impressive they've been arguably because of the way the game is played and officiated. But you've got one of the best young quarterbacks in the game. Look across the field. The Colts, you want to talk about coulda, shoulda, wouldas? If the Colts weren't being forced, and they have to be being forced to play Anthony Richardson because no coach would look at how inept he was,

and his final stat line looked a lot better than it was. And by the way, that final stat line, he completed like 30-something percent of his passes his passes right it's like 10 of 30 something even so no coach would go I'm gonna play him over Flacco when Flacco the last handful of years everywhere he's gone he throws for 400 every game so if you want to talk about what ifs you can say well what if we didn't have CJ Stroud well you probably lose but what if they. You can say, well, what if we didn't have CJ Stroud? Well, you probably lose. But what if they would have played Flacco? You probably lose because the Texans are super flawed. The Colts helped you out immensely in that game. Thank you. I appreciate it. We're six and two.

We're good. But if they would have played Flacco, that's the bigger what if to me. What if their front office wasn't forcing the coach to play Anthony Richardson, who sucks right now? Maybe he'll be good down the road. Maybe he'll do something in five years, two years next year. Today, he sucks. And he checked himself out of a game because he was tired in a key moment in the game when Flacco had to come in and they just had Flacco hand the ball off

and they settled for a field goal. If they would have played Flacco had to come in and they just had Flacco hand the ball off and they settled for a field goal. If they would have played Flacco, to me, that's the bigger what if that impacts this game more than, well, what if we didn't have C.J. Stroud? You do have C.J. Stroud. You know you have C.J. Stroud. You were never not going to have C.J. Stroud unless he got hurt. The Colts had a chance to say, holy shit, we're inept. Richardson ain't it. He ain't ready. Let's go to Flacco. And maybe Flacco doesn't beat you, but Flacco sure as fuck gives you a chance that Anthony Richardson didn't.

He threw one pass to a wide open dude for a 70-yard touchdown. That's it. He sucks. Right now, in this moment, the Colts essentially gift-wrapped you that game by not making that decision but the argument of well the Texans are six and two but what if they didn't have CJ Stroud they do

by this divine miracle that the Panthers decided hey we're gonna go with Bryce Young this divine gift has been bestowed upon us as people who root for and watch Houston sports, we have been given this gift. And that gift's name is C.J. Stroud. And he makes big throw after big throw after big throw. Even so, I don't even know that C.J. Stroud has played all that well the last couple of weeks. Certainly didn't against Green Bay. He was terrible in that game, but the whole team was. But the fact that this offensive line is as mediocre to bad as it is, and he still makes the plays and the throws he's making, this man is a wizard.

He has a gift. He is a gifted thrower of the football. He's elusive. He makes plays. So I'm listening to the radio there in Houston, and I understand the idea that you can't just look at the positive all the time. But you look at the fact that you're without nico collins so your ability to stretch the field is almost nil like your big plays are coming from

shorter passes that are turned in to 50-yard gains like the play before uh digs got hurt he was down the field but that wasn't a nico collins you know 60 air yard type of pass that was a touchdown it was you catch it for shorter you go go longer. You yak, if you will. So you're missing that element. Yet still, the man's making things happen. I refuse to look at this as, oh boy, you got lucky. I look at it as you have reasons to lose these games. Not having Nico Collins as a reason to struggle offensively.

Your offensive line being dog shit is reason enough to lose that game. And maybe I'm being pie-in-the-sky, battle-red-glasses guy, but I don't watch these games and go, we're lucky. I view it as they have every excuse to lose a lot of these games. Injuries, I mean, you lose digs in the third quarter of that game. You lose, you know, you don't have Nico Collins. So your two biggest weapons are gone. Your offensive line is dreadful. Yet you still want it in a game that you had to have to be in

first place. Like that's a big deal to me. Like they're flawed. Every team in the NFL is flawed. When you listen to local radio in every city in the country you listen to Kansas City local radio today I bet there's people in Kansas City that have questions about the Chiefs they're undefeated everywhere you go you think in Baltimore today they're thrilled that they lost to Jameis Winston no that to me that would have to me if losing that game is inexcusable relative to the Texans, if they would have lost. The Texans, in a first-place game, losing their game with the weapons they were missing,

I could look at that and go, it's sort of excusable. I wouldn't have liked it. I still wanted them to win, and they did. But you're facing who is essentially a third-string quarterback in Jameis Winston on a bad team that you feel like had given up and you lose that game so to me when I look at this I this is very rare for me this doesn't happen all that often for me but I view the Texans in more of a glass half full than half empty in this scenario I view it as they're missing big pieces and still getting dubs. I view it as CJ's running for his life, but they're still six and two. The concern is how do you fix it?

The concern is how long is Diggs going to be out? No one knows at this point. No one's saying anything, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he's going to be out for some time. So do you make a trade? What do you look for? Do you have to put, I mean, you kind of have to because you're kind of all in this year. This is a team that can make a playoff run. Will they beat the Chiefs? I don't know.

Will they beat the Ravens? I don't know. But you can't just roll out and go like, hey, CJ, sorry, bro. No Stefan Diggs, no Nico Collins at this point. How about you and Tank Dell go out and try to beat the Jets on Thursday? I mean, at this point, that's what it's going to have to be.

But once you get past that and beyond, you should get Nico back, which helps. But losing Diggs, who's getting six, seven, eight, nine catches a game, getting targeted a ton, good security blanket for you. You need to find another one of those dudes. I don't think you can just sit back and not make some sort of move. And how do you fix the offensive line, which is dreadful? There's only so many things you can just sit back and not make some sort of move. And how do you fix the offensive line, which is dreadful? There's only so many things you can do. So to me, that's the bigger discussion and not like, oh boy, we're lucky to be where we are. No, you got CJ Stroud. We're lucky we

have CJ Stroud. Yeah, you're lucky you have CJ Stroud, but you have CJ Stroud and he's been able to overcome those things. Can you continue to do that? That, I don't know. Fortunately, or unfortunately, you have to start looking at the Texans' schedule, and you're going to get to a far more, a meatier portion of that schedule. The Jets, I don't know if you'd consider them the meat, but it's Aaron Rodgers, and you think, hey, they could make plays,

but it's so great watching them suck. But I mean, the Lions can obviously, the Lions will be favored to beat you here, I would guess, especially if Nico's not back. He probably will be, I would imagine. But what if you don't have digs? The Lions will probably come in here as a slight road favorite, if not just like an even money game. The Cowboys, for as embarrassing and inept as they are,

boy, how about Dak throwing three or four consecutive incompletions with three minutes to go down six that's also another thing and we'll get into this when we talk about other like overall NFL stuff like that's the difference between dudes like Drew Brees and guys like Dak and I go back to Drew Brees because Drew Brees never had a cannon and he had an arm injury before he went to the Saints. So he's never been like big 80-yard, 70-yard pass guy. That's not who Drew Brees is. He can get the ball down there. That's not his calling card. Go back to a game that the Texans and Saints played on Monday Night Football.

I think it was 2017 or 2018. Deshaun was the quarterback. Deshaun takes them down the field at the dome, puts them in position to get the lead. They get it. Drew's got not much time left in this game. I forgot how much time was left. But he's got to get them in the field goal range. At no point does Drew ever look concerned

and feel like he's got to, you know, let loose and pick up 30, 40 yards on a play. If it's there, it's there. Drew and Sean Payton got that it's more important to get eight yards and get out of bounds than throw two consecutive 40-yard passes for incompletions, especially when you only need a field goal. Now, obviously, the Cowboys needed a touchdown, but they had three fucking minutes.

He had three minutes. He had all the time in the world. Instead, I believe every pass was past the sticks, and then you lose the game. But like a guy like Drew Brees, what made him so good, and Tom Brady was like this too, even though Tom could get it down the field as well. The great ones in those scenarios take what you give them. And Drew was so good at like, oh, look, I'll take this three-yard pass,

then my running back's going to turn into nine. We got a second and one instead of second and ten. That's what good ones do, man. That's why guys like Dak ain't it. Dak loves to pass. Dak becomes Tom Brady when the Cowboys are down three scores in the fourth quarter. He'll start putting up big numbers and thank him for it. I ended up hitting a parlay because of that. But boom, before you know it, the game looks a lot closer than it was, like the game they played against the Ravens. But at least in this game, you got the ball back and you had three

minutes. You had a chance to really cap off what would have been an impressive comeback on the road against San Francisco. But instead, what do you do? Incomplete, incomplete, incomplete, incomplete. Now, one of them was a deep ball that hit the receiver in the face. But why are you throwing 15 and 20-yard passes nonstop in that spot? You can run the ball in that spot. You have an eternity. Three minutes and 10 to 20 seconds with the two-minute warning in the NFL is an eternity. I don't understand the idea

of bang, bang, bang, game over. That's the difference between great ones and people like Dak who can pad the stats and put up numbers when they're losing, when the teams are giving you a lot of that shit over the middle. But when it's crunch time and you've cut it to six and your defense finally got off the field for you and you have a chance to go win it not tie it win it and you throw four consecutive incompletions that's the difference between Dak and quarterbacks who are elite and that's why he's not you gotta take what they give you brother but you look around now I don't know just go back to the Texans now. You got the Cowboys on the schedule. That's a losable game.

I think you're better than the Cowboys, but it's a losable game. I mean, look, there's a lot of losable games. Titans aren't a losable game. You shouldn't lose to them. You should beat the Jaguars. Even though two is back, the Dolphins found a way to lose. So I would say that you're at home against the Dolphins. That's a game you can and should win.

But then you've got Chiefs Ravens four days apart then you end the season with the Titans who stink anyway but like there's some losable games on here particularly the next I mean you could look at the next three games the Jets are two and six but would you be shocked if the Texans went to New York on a short week and gave up 300 passing yards to Aaron Rodgers yeah I mean I mean, I wouldn't be shocked. Fortunately, your pass rush has been very good. Fortunately, you've limited some of these more explosive plays. Yes, there was a 70-yarder in this game on Sunday,

but you've limited those more so and haven't given them up in as bigger numbers as you have. I mean, still two of those a game is not good. But early in the season, it felt like it was happening. Look at the first game you played against the Colts. I early in the season, it felt like it was happening. Look at the first game you played against the Colts. I feel like they made four or five big plays like that. This game, you were able to limit those to not as much, so you've done well. Joe Mixon is still running the ball well. He had 140 or so all-purpose yards, a little bit more than that. So he's doing his job. He's getting into the end zone. So there's a lot of good about them, but the bad about them is what's going

to hold them back like how long can cj stroud continue to run for his life and bail you out how long can that happen it's great that you have him though you know how long do you survive now without your two biggest weapons in the passing game you know what happens so but overall like you can't come out of that game disappointed like my first thought coming onto the air if I were doing a radio show the next morning wouldn't be like oh boy we got lucky no my first thought coming into that game is you make your own luck when you get good players and you've got one of the best young quarterbacks in the game and he made every essentially every big throw he had to make and your young quarterback was much much better than their young quarterback

then you get into the idea that if the Colts would have played Flacco I think they he had to make and your young quarterback was much, much better than their young quarterback. Then you get into the idea that if the Colts would have played Flacco, I think they may not have won. They would have had a much better shot to win. You want to give me a professional NFL quarterback that's won an MVP, won a Super Bowl, and in his late 30s or however old he is now is still going out there when given the opportunity and slinging. Or you want to give me Anthony Richardson who taps out of a game in the third quarter because he's winded. Who do you think would have given them a better shot to win that game? The answer is obvious. It would have been Flagler.

And I was tweeting about that the whole damn game. I'm sitting in the stadium like, what are they doing? This guy gives you no chance to win. I'm glad they didn't. But dumb. Just stupid. And that has to be coming from someone above the coach because I don't believe the coach truly sits there and thinks

that Anthony Richardson gives them the best chance to win. And all you're doing is fucking the rest of your team. The argument that people make for Richardson and younger guys is, well, they're only going to get better if you let them play and then maybe mentally they can't handle it and maybe you'll lose them. You know who you're going to lose is the 52 other dudes that aren't making millions of dollars. Many of them are wealthy. I'm not saying they're poor. They're not on the breadline. But you've got guys who are not the future starting quarterback that are going to make millions upon millions of dollars to be an NFL starting quarterback.

They're not the face of the franchise. Some of them are just dudes trying to win fucking football games. Like a Jonathan Taylor who went out and ran for 100 yards. Jonathan Taylor wants to win football games. Now, maybe he thinks Anthony Richardson gives them the better chance. I don't know. But there's a lot of guys on there

that are playing for their jobs and part of keeping your job is winning. There are coaches who are coaching for their jobs. And instead, you ride with a guy that does not give you a chance to win when you've got Flacco on the bench and we've watched what Flacco's capable of doing. Dude, the shit that Flacco was doing with the Browns, shit, every game the dude was throwing for like 450. And they'd come right back. Did they play a game against the Ravens last year that was a shootout? I forgot who they played, but Flacco is in this game,

and just every other pass was like a 70-yard touchdown. It was a shootout. It was epic, and then you got Anthony Richardson, who's, I'm tired, coach. I got to come out, guys. I'm sorry. So the Texans were fortunate that they didn't make that move. Could they have still won? Yeah, they could have, but I would take, like if I'm the Colts, I like my chances of Flacco versus C.J. Stroud and the Texans or Zanthony Richardson versus C.J. Stroud and the Texans. But they fucked up. And you get the win.

Now you're 6-2. Short week. Beat up. Must win situation for the Jets, although I think their ship has kind of sailed. I'm enjoying watching that so much. Just the demise. Hey, can I get Devontae Adams? Sure. Guess what? Nothing happened.

Dude's doing less. Devontae Adams actually doing less than he did with the Raiders. He was a better player when he was catching passes from Aiden O'Connell and fucking Gardner Minshew than he is catching passes from his his boy Aaron Rodgers it's

I'm enjoying it it's funny all right anyway we'll get some more stuff I'll get Jillian here in a little bit we'll do some more pods uh but uh thank you